Which Are The Best Savings Makes up about Students In Singapore?
Life as a student is challenging. You have to juggle between the ever-growing demands of faculty, manage your everyday expenses and even part-time work during your holidays to supplement your capacity to pay.
As a student, every dollar counts, there really isn't a greater crime than banks taking precious money from broke students by means of fall below fees.
Fall Below Fees And Monthly Average Balance
Fall below fees eat into your savings silently, if you aren't alert. Fall below fees in Singapore can range from $2 to $7.50 monthly.
These fees are deducted automatically when your account's specified Monthly Average Balance (MAB) falls below a certain level. The MAB is the total sum of daily balance inside your account divided by the length of time within the month.
Let's state that your account's MAB is $1,000. At the beginning of the month, you've $900, because you withdrew some cash for any friend's 21st birthday gift. Even though you replenished your funds to $1,000 prior to the month's end, you'll still be charged the fall below fee.
Students would actually appreciate a savings account with low/no MAB requirements and fall below fees, that will allow them to make the most from every dollar.
Towards this end, the CIMB FastSaver and OCBC Frank count highlighting.
CIMB FastSaver has no fall below fees or monthly charges, and allows you to earn 1% interest per annum on your MAB that month as long as it is $1,000 and above. This is quite nice, since it incentivises students to build up the habit of smoking of not touching their, while not penalising them when they do.
OCBC Frank has no initial deposit requirement or MAB for customers underneath the age of 26, while giving a more modest 0.2% per annum around the first $10,000.
For each of the above accounts, applicants need to be 16 years of age and above.
Wide Network Of ATMs Conveniently Located
Fall below fees aside, another essential feature in savings makes up about students is having a wide network of ATMs conveniently located. Admittedly, with cashless payment and cash transfer options like PayNow, using a sudden need for cash on hand is less important.
But for the times when you need to withdraw cash, understanding that you can do so easily is actually valuable.
When it comes to ATMs, the DBS-POSB ATM network is by far probably the most extensive. Thus, the POSB Everyday Checking account may be worth taking a look at. It doesn't require any minimum deposit, and it has a modest MAB dependence on $500 and fall below fee of $2, though this really is waived for applicants younger than 21.
A runner-up will be the aforementioned OCBC Frank, which allows withdrawals from the shared ATM network between OCBC and UOB, adding to its usefulness.
Building Good Personal Finance Habits Early
While you may scoff in the low dollar worth of how much your savings accounts are generating you, realize that the great personal finance habits you're accumulating are far more valuable.
If you can optimise a checking account of $1,000 or $3,000, then you'll have a similar savvy and prudent habits to optimise your funds when you have $10,000 or even $30,000.
Learning to understand the conditions and terms of savings accounts and just how interest rates are earned will set you in a solid position to understand other personal finance tools later on, such as credit cards, investments, and much more.
